People and Civilizations of the Americas
An ancient civilization called Mesoamerican of the Maya developed a written language which enabled scribes to record the important actions of rulers and military events. One of the scribes was called the Mayan Scribe. The Mayan Scribe used a complex writing system to record religious concepts and memorializes the actions of their kings. Lady WacChanil-Ahau, the Maya princess, mounted a litter decorated with rich textiles and animal skins.
The Mayans had a urban center called Dos Pilas. Lady Wac-Chanil-Ahau’s destination was the Maya city of Naranjo, where she married a powerful nobleman. Her marriage was eliminated when the regions major military power Caracol, had defeated Naranjo. K’ ak Tiliw Chan Chaak, the son of Lady Wac-Chanil-Ahau, ascended the throne of Naranjo as a five-year-old in 693 C. E . Chaak was a prodigious builder, leaving behind an expanded and beautified capital as part of his legacy.
He erected numerous carved stone monuments called stelae celebrated her life. The defeat of the city-states of Tikal and Naranjo by Caracol undermined long-standing commercial and political relations in much of southern Mesoamerica and led to more than a centaury of conflict. Caracol was challenged by the dynasty created at Dos Pilas by the heirs of Lady Wac-Chanil-Ahau. The two shared culture and religion, the great Maya cities stayed divided by the dynastic ambitions of their rulers and by the competition for resources.
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The people of the Americas were in constant competition for resources as the story of Lady Wac-Chanil-Ahau’s marriage and her role in the development of the Maya dynasty suggested them. Member’s elites organized their societies to meet these challenges, even as their ambition for greater power predictably ignited new conflicts. No single set of political institutions or technologies worked in every environment, and enormous cultural diversity existed in the ancient Americas. Mesoamerica, which is Mexico and northern Central America and the Andean region extraordinarily productive and diversified agriculture.
Cities were built that rivaled the capital of the Chinese and Roman Empire in size and beauty. The rest of the hemisphere, indigenous peoples adapted combinations of hunting and agriculture to maintain a wide variety of settlement patters, political forms, and cultural traditions. All cultures and civilizations of America experienced cycles of expansion and contraction as they struggled with the challenges of environmental changes, population growth, social conflicts and war.
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